Hollyoaks
20/11/14
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The Happy Ending?
So it appears to be over!
The final scenes were shot in Blackpool hence that little nod to Paris Lees probably as a cheers for meeting them when it all began for a chat.
Makes sense.
However, this has been a very conflicted , confusing, messy, and apart from the tokenistic trans role for 40 seconds for Paris - a transgender-free zone.
Very disappointing, when, as mentioned before, they had Nadia Almada (the trans* winner of Big Brother) on the same soap in 2004, so they knew all they needed to know then. 10 years on they seem to have forgotten it all and need their hand held again. Ironically, Blessing is a black character and I wonder if they called in a Black personality for advice on how she should behave?
And that is the point in a nutshell really. Hire the right person for the job and this really is not necessary as the individual actress can chat to her script writer and advise on-the-fly!.
So what happened in the end of what was an exhausting storyline.
Well, Blessing is still in Blackpool! For someone who got on a bus with nothing and broke she soon got a nice flat and a job?!
Blessing finds the remainder of the diamonds to hand back to Trevor.
Trevor arrives in Blackpool..."Dennis I have a Rottweiler breathing down my neck (an I want my diamonds back!)"
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Dennis spends most of the episode running after her, and she plays the usual hard to get...
Dennis - "Bless.... I don't get it! I pour me 'art out to Yah - You 'av got the diamonds!
Hello!!!
He then says, "oh stuff it then", then he changes his mind, Blessing returns to her flat exasperated, and is about to self-harm showing the scars on her arm (again) and then stops...
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[Editor's note Not all trans self harm you know! And this could be a 'trigger' for some people so quite dangerous to show! IM]
Later bag of diamonds in hand she goes to rendezvous with Trevor to hand them back.
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They have a few 'famous' Blackpool backdrops along the way (nod to the Tourist Board there
) Dennis finds her again - which was lucky eh?! They argue on the Pier. Blessing says.
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"These diamonds mean I could go abroad and get my surgery today! But then I would be a criminal on the run!" Dennis in a temper grabs the velvet bag and throws them in the sea!
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WEEEE!!!! Plop!
[Editors' note - AT this point I thought, yeah but they will be washed up on the shore or at low tide a beach-comber will find them so thats dumb... But they were way ahead of me for once
Eds]
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Dennis - "I am sorry!" Music starts playing... I have spent my whole life searching for the perfect love story, happy ever after!
[At this point in reality Blessing would have probably had a nervous breakdown LOL but she is strangely calm after losing thousands in diamonds and potentially both their lives to gangsters looking for them - still gotta laugh eh? Romeo n' Juliet ending n all that?! Both dead maybe?! Eds]
Blessing - "Boy meets girl!"
Dennis then says something odd...."Why would anyone settle for that when boy meets transwoman is more fun!
[Editor's Note - I know what he means, but this suggests Blessing is not a woman, she is a trans*woman. This maybe argued by some who do not believe the brain is responsible for gender and genitals control the human body. But that's clearly incorrect. The Brain is in control of everything inc gender. Blessing is a woman, she just needs some genital surgery. Being picky but could have been avoided.]
Then Trevor finds them she explains she doesn't have them - which is true. He basically writes them off and Dennis agrees to move to Blackpool to start again with Blessing.
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They embrace on the beach and joke about their future together.
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"What about a
TRANSAtlantic cruiser for the dream boat they are going to buy and rename Blessing in disguise... he jokes, "That's borderline offensive replies Blessing. How are we gonna pay for it? "I dunno we'll find a way to sort everything out!"
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[Editor's Note - Blessing being funny - was actually really good for a moment - what a shame we didn't see more!]
Blessing says - "Oh now I have set him off - this for a moment was actually funny and great acting... what a shame we didn't see that side of her. I think she could have been a great comedy performer in this role! NM! I am sure we will see the actress again in other roles that will allow for that!
They embrace and the Madness song, #'it must be love' starts playing (kerching!!! royalties for Suggs and the gang
)
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Dennis notices the bag in the lapping water.
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[Or is it a dead rat? Eds
]
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Then he looks over her shoulder during the embrace and there is the diamond bag floating in the beach-break. The film freezes with a knowing look on his face as if to say... Problems solved!
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And that's it!
[Alternative ending from yours truly is a kid picks the bag up and runs off with it! LOL!]
Nah we can only assume a bit like the end of 'The Italian Job' that we make up our own happy ending for them both! I am just surpised that Trevor took the loss so well! That really didn't fit, but then again he owes Dennis for the loss of his wife in the blast remember - so maybe this was his way of making it evens and amends?! See I am helping out the writers here must stop that! It is like trying to read the mind of the Mona Lisa! We all have an opinion - let's leave it at that!
Comment
OK What did I like about the series?
Well, they had a transgender character on the show. Blessing's mum was really good. I liked the idea that the ending was not a
TAADAAH! Moment coming out of surgery and that is left hanging in the air (thats not meant to be a pun but sorry! But it is almost Sid James Level! Young uns' Google him!)
The fact that the future could be one where she does not have surgery is probably a last chance saloon for the storyline. As that was a pretty good finale! She stopped self-harming, a new life only down the road, rather than running off to Thailand, she can still go back to her Gender Clinic (where is that one exactly(?) as I'd like the address for our Practitioner Guide please
).
What didn't I like?
The fact that this is nothing new, they not on had Nadia Almada on the show in 2004, they also did an 18months storyline with Victoria Atkin as Trans male Jason Costello 2 years ago and that was a better soty - sorry. Firstly Victoria 'could have been a trans teenage male trying to transition, whereas Blessing caould NEVER have been a transgender woman - for Blessing's role to have worked it would have at least required a person identified as male at birth, even the Teenage soap Waterloo Road managed to get that right on the both times they featured trans kids! That said a transgender actress maybe wooden to begin with, Candis Cayne and Laverne Cox are no Judy Dench or Helen Mirran that's for sure but they got better as time went on. So chances are early efforts by trans actors may well be terrible, but we have to start somewhere
And at least they can be forgiven as being authentic in the role carries a lot of weight!
The relentless, "BLESSIN' I LUV YAH!" became almost a headache, only rescued by the wonderfull actress who played Blessing's mother. She was seriously under used - what a shame!
The storyline over-focused on the stereotypical transgender pathway, it has been done to death, why not make Blessing a transwoman who owned the nightclub and already transitioned for once, why couldn't of Blessing been a family doctor? She was this self-harming lost cause for most of the series, who when was not blubbing and hamming it up, was cutting her arms.
Any parent of a trans child watching that would likely be terrified! If they Googled Paris
and came across her column for vice (2 puns there - sorry! Don't mean to!) They would maybe have a heart attack!
I am not really sure what this storyline served other than a filler for a rusty soap looking for something they had not done (they kinda had).
I have followed it I have every recording it is all archived, and will now become reference material for future arguments. Maybe in 10 years when some young trans activists says! "I am the first Transgender Journalist to be in a soap, I can defend Paris next time eh?
It may even get a Soap award parting transchharacters do tend to get them, you have to be pretty dire to not get an award at a film festival these days if you feature a trans character no matter how awful they are!
Just ask Pedro Almodovar or Melvil Poupaud! This cheap way of exploiting trans-currency with quite often lame scripts is lazy and exploitative, especially when they don't even have the decency to cast a trans person - THIS HAS GOT TO STOP WORLDWIDE NOW!
Paris my even get an invite to attend if they are nominated for a soap award, so every cloud eh?!
If the series helped even one trans*person, then it was worth doing, and for that reason despite
my misgivings I will award the series an Average.
3/5 TZ Stars - Average.
Hope you enjoyed this blog - now I can have a rest and find something else to do - always plenty to do - The
http://www.TransgenderTelevisionAwards.com soon (Jan 2015 but we start preparing now!)!
![[yesss]](./images/smilies/yes.gif "yesss")
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The script writer needs to think of something else! This is like the freakin' 'Twighlight Zone' (DĂ©jĂ vu for younger peeps) 
